“This was a complete one – I won’t say a disaster, but it was very close,” said Dr. Hanny Al-Samkari, a hematologist and clinical investigator at Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Cancer patients are receiving “confusing messages,” he said, and the guidance they receive depends largely on their condition. Every day he receives a flood of messages from patients asking if they are already qualified to receive the vaccine (in his state, the answer is basically no). One drove four hours to find a vaccination site. “It’s the Wild West,” he said.
He asked cancer patients to consult their doctors to coordinate the timing of the vaccine according to their treatment, unless they are in remission, have been treated for a long time or are receiving only hormonal treatment for breast or prostate cancer, he said. Dr. Tomasz Beer, professor at the School of Medicine at Oregon University of Science and Health and deputy director of the school’s Knight Cancer Institute.
Vaccines for covid19>
Answers to your vaccine questions
Currently, more than 150 million people – almost half the population – can be vaccinated. But each state makes the final decision about who goes first. The country’s 21 million health workers and three million residents in long-term care facilities were the first to qualify. In mid-January, federal authorities urged all states to open eligibility for all people aged 65 and over and for adults of any age with medical conditions that put them at high risk of becoming seriously ill or dying because of Covid- 19. Adults in the general population are at the rear of the line. If federal and state health officials can resolve bottlenecks in vaccine distribution, all 16 years and older will be eligible as early as this spring or early summer. The vaccine has not been approved in children, although studies are ongoing. It may take months for a vaccine to be available to anyone under the age of 16. Go to your state’s health website for up-to-date information on vaccination policies in your area
You should not have to pay anything out of your pocket to get the vaccine, although insurance information is requested. Even if you do not have insurance, you should receive the vaccine free of charge. Congress passed legislation this spring that prohibits insurers from applying any cost sharing, such as copayment or deductibles. He imposed additional protections, preventing pharmacies, doctors and hospitals from charging patients, including those without insurance. Even so, health experts fear that patients may run into loopholes that leave them vulnerable to unexpected bills. This can happen for those who are charged a medical consultation fee along with their vaccine, or Americans who have certain types of health coverage that do not fall under the new rules. If you get the vaccine at a doctor’s office or urgent care clinic, talk to them about possible hidden costs. To make sure you don’t get a surprise bill, the best bet is to get your vaccine at a vaccination post in the health department or at a local pharmacy as soon as the vaccines are more widely available.
This must be determined. It is possible that Covid-19 vaccines will become an annual event, as well as the flu vaccine. Or it may be that the benefits of the vaccine last for more than a year. We have to wait and see how durable vaccine protection is. To determine this, the researchers will screen vaccinated people for “innovative cases” – those people who fall ill with Covid-19 despite the vaccination. This is a sign of weakened protection and will give researchers clues as to how long the vaccine lasts. They will also monitor the levels of antibodies and T cells in the blood of vaccinated people to determine whether and when a booster injection may be needed. It is conceivable that people need reinforcements every few months, once a year or just every few years. It is just a matter of waiting for the data.
For example, those on chemotherapy may have a better chance of developing an immune response if the vaccine is given when their leukocyte counts are not at the lowest level, Beer said. The recommendations for patients with leukemia or lymphoma who are undergoing treatment or have had a recent bone marrow transplant are particularly complex and require absolutely consultation and coordination with an oncologist, he emphasized.
While some may worry about the risks of meeting a crowd at a mass vaccination site, Dr. Al-Samkari advises patients to receive doses where available, as long as they wear masks and keep their distance from others in line. “The anxieties are clearly well-founded,” he said. “But we need to shoot the guns.”
In general, people with cancer should get the vaccine “as soon as they can, whenever they can,” said Dr. Carol Ann Huff, clinical director of the Johns Hopkins Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center and one of the authors of the National Comprehensive Network Guidelines of cancer on Covid-19 vaccines for cancer patients. There are a few caveats: patients who receive a bone marrow transplant or CAR-T therapy should wait at least three months before receiving the vaccine, she said.
But, depending on the level of transmission of the virus in a patient’s community, it may be safer to wait to receive the vaccine. If there is a high level of transmission in the community, “the risks can outweigh the benefits of waiting,” said Beer. Active cancer patients should contact their oncologist before receiving the vaccine, he advised, unless they are in remission, have been treated for a long time or are receiving only hormone treatment for breast or prostate cancer.
Those participating in clinical cancer trials have more obscure guidelines on vaccination. Allyson Harkey, 46, from Maryland, has stage four kidney cancer and is participating in an immunotherapy trial; she said her doctor is not sure if she should get the vaccine. The National Comprehensive Cancer Network guidelines widely recommend that patients receiving immunotherapy should receive the vaccine as soon as it becomes available, but should consult their doctors in advance, as there are a variety of tests. She feels like she’s in a state of limbo, waiting for more information – a process that is made more frustrating by what she feels is a ticking clock. “My prognosis is not good. I’m probably still a few years old, ”she said. “It is very difficult to spend this time, knowing that I don’t have much time, just at my home.”